Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Motions/Consensus Items:

1. A motion to approve the PMC minutes for the Fall 2025 and Special Meeting of February 6,
2025, was made by Todd Scholz, seconded by Jerry Baron; unanimously approved.

2. A motion was made to approve the “Track B” Commodity Liaison Committee membership list
as proposed and extend the end date to 2029, by Todd Scholz; seconded by Mike Bledsoe;
unanimously approved. Members whose term extended include Mark Arney, National
Watermelon Board; James Cranney, California Citrus Quality Council; William Frantz, The
Cranberry Institute; Rachel Roberts, American Mushroom Institute; Todd Scholz, USA Dry Pea
& Lentil Council; Alan Schreiber, Agricultural Development Group, Inc.; and Lee VanWychen,
Weed Science Society of America.

3. A motion was made to maintain coordinated meeting coverage, when appropriate, and to
implement a google sheet to log planned meeting attendance by Matt Hengel, seconded by
Jerry Baron; unanimously approved.

4. A motion to adjourn the regular session at 4:44 pm and to move to Executive Session was
made by Jerry Baron; seconded by Mary Hausbeck; unanimously approved.

5. A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 12:04 pm by Alvin Simmons seconded by Liwei
Gu; unanimously approved.

Motions/Consensus Votes Made Via Email In-Between Regular Meetings:

None.

Action Items:

1. Action Item (PMC): to discuss the Network Expansion Taskforce goals with the regions and
revisit the items discussed in an interim or Summer PMC meeting.

2. Action Item (Baron): Consolidate various documents and information into Governance Bylaws
for the Project Management Committee.

Food Crop Program:

EPA publication of actions that established 52 new tolerances for 8 active ingredients. These tolerances support 1024 potential new uses on food crops.

IR-4 submitted to EPA 9 tolerance petitions and 1 Final Report to the registrant for Label Expansion or Conditional Registration - these covered 48 unique requests (PR #s) for assistance and crop group tolerance updates (Attachment 3). ● 10 data packages were completed but not submitted. 27 draft final reports were submitted to IR-4’s Quality Assurance Unit for Good Laboratory Practice compliance auditing.

51 Product Performance Reports and 27 Integrated Solutions Reports were posted and provided to cooperating companies.

Biopesticide regulatory support actions and activities included:

● Biopesticide submissions were made for (1) Citrus tristeza virus Expressing Spinach Defensin Protein SoD 2 in Citrus Fruits for resistance or tolerance to citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing (HLB); (2) an attenuated Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus Strain ON-BM3 vaccine and (3) CarriCea T1 Citrus Rootstock with resistance or tolerance to citrus greening.

● Responded to a 75-day EPA letter for the Helicoverpa zea nudivirus 2 submission

● Submitted the final printed label for FourSure

● Biochemical classification was completed for EPA for alum with classification as a biochemical like biopesticide. 

New research

Residue Studies - 53 new Magnitude of the Residue Studies 394 total field trials (362 New/32 Carryover)

74 Product Performance projects involving 148 efficacy/crop safety trials 

62 field trials that contributed to 35 Integrated Solutions projects

Environmental Horticulture Program: At this time, IR-4 does not have an accurate assessment of new registrations achieved in 2024. This information will be obtained during the second quarter 2025 with responses to inquiries from cooperating industry registrants. 

Eleven research summaries were written and/or updated to support new or existing registrations, provided to registrants, and posted on the IR-4 website 

The Environmental Horticulture Program conducted 671 field and greenhouse trials (246 efficacy, 429 crop safety) that contributed to 56 projects

3,296 field and greenhouse trials contributed to these summaries; trials came from the following IR-4 Units:

● North Central Region: 314 trials ● Northeast Region: 564 trials ● Southern Region: 994 trials ● Western Region: 711 trials ● ARS cooperative sites: 713 trials 

A. Axtell, S. Zebelo, J. Baron, H. Ross. 2024.  The IR-4 Project invites involvement from minority-serving institutions. American Entomologist. https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/70/4/9/7934265

A. Szczepaniec, A. Lathrop-Melting, T. Janecek, P. Nachappa, W. Cranshaw, G. Alnajjar, A. Axtell. 2024. Suppression of hemp russet mite, Aculops cannabicola (Acari: Eriophyidae), in industrial hemp in greenhouse and field, Environmental Entomology, Volume 53, Issue 1, Pages 18–25, https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvad052

L.M. Sosnoskie, R.B. Batts, Thierry Besançon, 2024 An Evaluation of Targeted Spraying for Reducing Herbicide Use, Enhancing Crop Safety, and Improving Weed Control in Highbush Blueberry, HortTechnology, Volume xx, Pages  https://doi.org/ S. T. Massie, B. J. Richardson, J. S. Patel, and D. H. Gent 2025. Evaluation of fungicides for hop powdery mildew, Toppenish, Washington, 2024. Plant Health Progress (In Press).